for elevators. Then one day the old Gentleman had a large envelope bearing big colorful foreign stamps. I asked if they were Chinese. He said they were Russian.

I told him I had been to Russia some years before

and had family there. Next thing I knew, the Russian

stamps on their envelope had been slid under my door.

A gift from my new friend.

I learned from others, that the Gentleman was

a renowned Emeritus Professor retired from the

University of Pennsylvania. We all found out

just how renowned, when the President of

China at that time, who was in the US on a

state visit, arranged to stop in to see my special

neighbor and his wife. He was a former studentof the old Professor. That afternoon this building was cordoned off and crawling with Secret Service and Chinese security agents. Everyone had to

stay wherever they were, inside or outside for the

duration.

Before coming to America, I heard that the Professor had been an aide to General Chaing Kai Shek.

And once I asked him where he was when WWII

ended. He told me Shanghai.

By now when we met in the hall by the elevator

or in the lobby, me going for mail, he reading his

Chinese newspaper, he would smile, sometimes

wink and with a twinkle in his eye, tap his cheek for a peck.

I was always happy to comply.

In the end, the old couple's children moved them

out west, closer to their homes and families.

Today, thinking about him and his sweet quietly smiling wife.Wondering if there might be a picture and furtherinformation online, I discovered both. And that he had passed away at 99 in September 2002.